Improve Stocker Pasture Performance with Implants

November 10, 2010 – Every calf has the potential to do more – be more efficient and gain more pounds to improve overall performance and profitability. With the minimal investment in a growth implant, stockers and backgrounders can have the opportunity to see more profit.

“Proper nutritional management, implants and deworming are three things that significantly improve performance for stockers,” says Gary Sides, Ph.D., nutritionist, Pfizer Animal Health. Weight gain on pasture is much more economical than weight put on in a feedyard with high feed prices.

Research has shown that implants can have a 2.3 percent effect in breakeven price per head. Only deworming increased average daily gain more.1

What’s more, the gains from implanting while on pasture can be significant. Research has shown implants can increase stocker weight gains 10 percent or more compared with non-implanted cattle.1 Implanting with a product specific to heifers, like SYNOVEX® H, showed an average of 21 pounds increased weight gain for females. Similarly, SYNOVEX S showed an average increase of 25 pounds for steers compared with non-implanted cattle.2

“Developing an overall cattle management program that includes implants can be very simple procedure,” Dr. Sides says. “It’s not hard to pick up the additional pounds of gain and the resulting revenue it generates.”

Implants are one of the most profitable management tools available for cattle producers. On average, one implant will generate enough added gain to generate a 20-1 return on investment. That is very meaningful in today’s market.

The key ways that implants benefit stocker operations is by helping to maximize total pounds of beef produced from their low cost forage investment, Dr. Sides notes. Additionally, pasture implants do not depress future performance at the feedlot level.

”What producers do on pasture doesn’t have to hold back performance at the feedlot,” Dr. Sides says. “With a solid implant strategy, producers can realize gains from pasture through to harvest.”

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